20 months after killing, pain, questions remain

STOCKTON - The senseless shooting death of an immigrant cab driver still haunts.

Kevin Parrish

STOCKTON - The senseless shooting death of an immigrant cab driver still haunts.

It haunts the family of Luis Javier Palma. It haunts the Stockton Police Department detectives who investigated his September 2011 slaying. It haunts the Catholic priest who presided over his funeral mass 20 months ago.

"His story is particularly sad. He was alone - to die alone in the dark of the night," said the Rev. Dean McFalls, pastor of St. Mary's Church. "There was no motive. This is a classic case of a total lack of respect for life from some people."

Palma would be 46 years old today had he lived. His birthday has prompted family members to call out for help in solving the case, described by police as an "active investigation," that has had no new leads in months.

"That was one I really wished I could have solved," said Officer Joseph Silva, Stockton police spokesman. He was a homicide investigator in 2011 and remembers well the frustration of trying to find Palma's killer or killers.

"This is one of those cases that I remember because Mr. Palma was working and providing for his family at the time of the homicide. I know someone out there has information."

Silva has been promoted and the investigation is now in the hands of his former partner, Detective Charles Harris.

There have been more than 100 Stockton homicides since Palma was shot and killed behind the wheel of his light green taxi cab. He was the 26th victim in 2011 as the city established a new record for homicides at 58 that year. In 2012, Stockton broke that record with 71 homicides.

"It's been almost two years," said Claudia Palma, his 42-year-old niece. "We haven't heard anything. No witnesses at all. He's been forgotten about. I don't want people to take it lightly that a life was taken.

"It's been very frustrating and hard."

About 20 family members will gather Saturday at Olivet Memorial Park in Colma, just south of San Francisco, to remember Palma's birthday. For many in his extended family, the tall, strong man was a patriarch, his niece said.

Reconstructing what happened the morning he was killed has been particularly difficult.

He was shot at 1:44 a.m. on Sept. 4, 2011, a Sunday morning. Palma lived a mile or so away and left the television on at home when he responded to the phone call for service. Palma was on call 24 hours a day.

It is uncertain whether he had already picked up a fare and was headed home or he was still on the way when he was shot.

At the intersection of Lincoln and Washington streets, underneath the Crosstown Freeway, witnessed described seeing his taxi parked near an overpass. Shots rang out.

"Witnesses looked toward the sound of the gunfire," Silva said, "and they saw two people running away."

The only thing taken was his cellphone.

Palma was 44.

Family members speculate that maybe his car broke down. "If you ask me, he was at the wrong place at the wrong time and the wrong people came by," Claudi Palma said. "You would think someone would talk by now, but there's been nothing. That's why we're so puzzled."

Silva said the police department scoured the area surrounding Lincoln and Washington, distributing fliers along the nearby slough and at the Stockton Shelter for the Homeless and at St. Mary's Interfaith Dining Hall.

No one has come forth with credible information.

Claudi Palma said her uncle, always careful, never felt threatened and had no enemies. "But a lot of us are really afraid," she said, "because we don't have any answers. This person is still out there. It could be anyone."

Palma, born in Managua, Nicaragua, had moved with his family to the Bay Area as a child. He was one of 12 siblings. He had worked as a cab driver for more than a decade before opening his own, independent company, Stockton's All Town Cab & Shuttle Services. "He was on cloud nine," his niece said. "He was so excited about having his own business. It had been his dream for a long time."

Silva said he too was frustrated. "Someone out there knows what happened," he said. "Speaking for all the homicide detectives, we do bond with the families. In the early stages, you are in contact with them almost daily. You want to learn as much about the victim as you can."

McFalls still wonders about the life cut short.

"There are unknown saints, people who are anonymous in practicing their faith," the downtown priest said. "We take them for granted until they are missing, until they are gone."